Working with clients always involves lots of moving parts – at Animade, those parts are also dancing, jumping, chasing each other around and, when needed, party pooping.

The London-based animation studio, founded by childhood friends Tom Judd and James Chambers, helps some of the biggest companies in world tell stories and share news with warm, playful characters. They brought Airbnb’s logo to life for the New York City Marathon and helped Facebook launch their Reactions feature, adorably:

Though the finished animations look like they've sprung to life on their own, lots of planning, designing and storyboarding goes on behind the scenes.

To help shed light on the process, Animade published The Seven Steps of Animation Production on their blog last year. The friendly step-by-step guide walks through every stage of the process, from kick-off to final delivery, and makes it easy for everyone to understand. It’s an indispensable resource for Animade’s clients, and a fun read for anyone who’s wondered how animations are made.

The Seven Steps of Animation Production digital mini newspaper by Animade.

“The response we got was phenomenal,” says Amy Knight, Animade's Head of Marketing, about the original blog post. “We realised what a handy tool it was for introducing people to the animation process in a studio like ours.”

Animade often works with clients who have very little experience with animation, so they decided to turn the blog post into a newspaper to help set expectations, and get everyone on the same page, when they first meet. The “friendly and pick-up-able feel" of our digital mini format helps break the ice.

The Seven Steps of Animation Production digital mini newspaper by Animade.

Using the original illustrations from their blog post, Animade created a print-ready design that’s charming and fun, as well as informative. “Filled with bold, eye-catching designs, the newspaper has just the right balance of feeling disposable yet special,” says Knight.

The Seven Steps of Animation Production digital mini newspaper by Animade.

When meeting new clients face-to-face, the Animade team bring along a few copies of their newspaper, plus some project postcards – as they describe them, “nice things to refer to and decorate the desk!”